


Dan Avidan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by fizzy_absinthe



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: EgoBang friendship, Egobang - Freeform, Friendly Cuddles, Gen, M/M, brief mention of Brian, brief mention of Suzy, cuddle puddle, i'm not very good at tagging things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 00:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8823640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzy_absinthe/pseuds/fizzy_absinthe
Summary: Dan has a pretty bad day. He wakes up really late, falls over a few times, gets into a minor fender bender, and is starting to worry about how this could be a slippery slope leading to the return of his life pre-Grumps; failure, poverty, and loneliness. Lucky for him, he has his good friend Arin, even on very bad days.





	

The day started out bad because of the night before.

Dan had gotten home late again, dragging his feet as he walked up the steps to his porch, seriously considering just sitting on the patio chair instead of going inside his home. His backpack was too heavy, with his laptop in it, a few notebooks, various other junk he carried around for some reason. The thought of just giving up and sleeping on the porch might have been too strong if he wasn't so hungry.

He unlocked the door sluggishly, set the backpack on the nearby couch, and walked into the kitchen in a stupor. Today had been unbearably busy; filming an ad for Game Grumps, going to the studio to record for the cover album, learning the dance moves for a new Ninja Sex Party video... All on top of his usual errands and responsibilities. He was, needless to say, ungodly exhausted.

It took him ten minutes of staring at the contents of his fridge, squinting hard because he couldn't be bothered to find his glasses, to even come to the conclusion that he was too tired to so much as reheat leftover Thai food in the microwave. So he grabbed an apple, went back into the living room, and sat on the couch to eat it.

God only knows how long he sat there, watching the ceiling fan spin lazily, only taking a few bites of the apple before he just gave in and fell asleep right there on the couch.

Sleeping on his couch would've made the next day bad enough, as he had to scrunch up a bit to fit on it. So he was already expecting a sore back. What he was not expecting, however, was forgetting to set an alarm so he woke up at the proper time.

This, of course, is very out of character for Dan, and he knows it when he blinks awake several hours later, frowning at his sunlight-drenched living room, completely forgetting he had fallen asleep on the couch last night. He sits up slowly, attempting a tentative stretch as he does, not knowing what to expect in regards to how his body will appreciate sleeping anywhere but his bed.

After a few distressing but satisfying pops and cracks, Dan stands up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he goes through his bag in search of his phone. Unsurprisingly, the battery is critically low as he did not plug it into the charger, but that is not what sends a spike of panic shooting through him.

It is, currently, three o'clock in the afternoon, he has seven text message notifications, four missed calls, a voice mail, and several emails.

Dan simply stares at the screen in shock for a few seconds before his brain kicks in. He scrambles for the bedroom upstairs, stumbling on the landing halfway up the staircase, and nearly knocks his own ass to the floor by running into the bedroom door with a loud "THUMP"

The whole way up the stairs, and while navigating the somewhat dark bedroom, Dan mutters a long string of swear words under his breath, culminating in "shit shit SHIT" as the battery on his phone dips down to two percent.

He climbs awkwardly over the bed, inadvertently kicking pillows and bed covers this way and that, before flopping onto his stomach and reaching the charger cord by the bedside table. With the 'low battery' notification sound ringing ominously in his ears, he manages to get the phone plugged in and charging.

It takes Dan a moment to recover, but he only gives himself a moment before scrolling feverishly through the various texts and missed calls.

**9:25 AM - MISSED CALL from ARIN**

**9:48 AM - TEXT MSG from VERNON**

**9:48 AM - TEXT MSG from ARIN**

**9:51 AM - MISSED CALL from BRIAN**

**10:15 AM TEXT MSG from ARIN**

**10:22 AM MISSED CALL from BRIAN**

**10:39 AM TEXT MSG from ARIN**

**10:39 AM VOICE MAIL from ARIN**

**10:47 AM TEXT MSG FROM BARRY**

**11:30 AM TEXT MSG from BARRY**

**12:02 PM TEXT MSG from BRIAN**

**12:33 PM MISSED CALL from ARIN**

Dan swallows thickly, running his shaking hand through his hair as his mind races. He was supposed to be at the Grump space at nine o'clock this morning to film another part of the ad, and then record Game Grumps with Arin. He had a voice lesson at one o'clock, acting lessons at two-thirty... his stomach lurches at the thought of all the people who have no doubt been waiting around for him to show up while he slept on his couch.

He leaves the phone on the bedside table and hurries around his room, remembering to turn on the light only after he spent a good minute and a half trying to find a clean tshirt in the dark.

After ten minutes of frantic shirt-tossing and settling on a plain grey shirt that may or may not even be clean, he hurried into what he could only hope was a clean pair of jeans.

But as he hops on one foot, trying to slip the other through the pant leg, his foot gets caught in the hole at the knee and rips wide open.

Dan swears loudly as this causes him to lose his balance entirely and he falls to the floor, tangled up in the now ruined jeans. He lays there for a second, his aggravation building exponentially, before kicking away the jeans and settling for the pair he had already been wearing. 'They aren't that dirty,' he reasons with himself in a mild panic.

For the next fifteen minutes, Dan runs haphazardly around the house, trying to grab what he needs while his phone charges. He doesn't remember leaving his keys on the kitchen counter, but after tearing up and down the stairs three times in search of them, he doesn't much care. He has to check his bag three times to make absolutely sure his laptop charger is in there and he isn't about to leave it at home.

He'll have to bring something to eat, even though he is incredibly hungry. There's no time for anything else.

He doesn't even have time to shower; he just has enough time for a quick piss, and to check his reflection in the mirror. He looks absolutely awful, his hair is a tangled mess, his stubble is coming in. He looks slightly more homeless than usual, really.

He leaves the bathroom after quickly washing his face and hands and makes another mad dash up the stairs to get his phone, yanking the charger from the wall as he does so. Of course, the awful start to his day would not have been complete without him pulling wildly on the cord, causing the plug itself to fly out of the wall and hit him squarely between the eyes.

No time to lament over the small welt now growing on his forehead, Dan gathers up the charger and cord, hastily puts his phone in his back pocket, and runs back down the stairs even as his eyes water from the pain.

Of course, he runs out the door with his bag over his shoulder and car keys in hand before he realizes he's not even wearing any shoes. So he swears loudly again and goes back inside, finds his sneakers and hurriedly gets them on one at a time. As he's trying to hop around on one foot while getting a shoe onto the other, he doesn't notice the half-eaten green apple on the floor and manages to land on it as he hops around unsteadily, which of course sends him back onto the floor.

At this point, Dan stares mildly at the ceiling of his living room, panting a bit, one shoe on and the other kicked off by his sudden fall, laying innocently half a foot from him.

He could just call up Arin and apologize profusely for missing the ad, and recording. And he would have to apologize to his vocal instructor as well. And Brian. And his acting teacher. And everyone else.

He lets out a huge sigh; his head is already throbbing from stress (as well as the blunt-force trauma from the phone charger), his stomach churning from hunger and panic, his body aches from sleeping on the couch and multiple tumbles. But he should at least show up to record episodes with Arin. They had to stay ahead for their touring schedule coming up in the spring, not to mention con season and any hope of a vacation.

With difficulty, Dan heaves himself back up, puts the other shoe on his foot, and heads out the door.

* * *

 

Dan decided, rather unwisely considering how unlucky his day has been so far, to listen to his one voice mail from Arin on the drive over.

"You have. One. New message," says the automated system. Dan mutters under his breath as the time and date are repeated, followed by the message.

Arin's voice cuts in, sounding a bit tight. "Heyyy, buddy. Just wondering where you are. Hope you're okay and everything... um... yeah, everyone's kind of waiting for you to get here, so just. Call me back, let me know where you are, okay? Okay. Bye."

The guilt is building up like water behind a dam. He takes a right turn a bit too hard in his emotional state and just barely manages to keep the car from spinning out, but he's so absorbed in feeling bad about sleeping in that he takes it in his stride. "Wonderful way to ruin your career, you idiot," he hisses at himself. "All that work for nothing. All of it for nothing because you're still just a lazy bum, sleeping for twelve hours on a fucking couch."

Letting down coworkers is one thing, but to Dan, letting down Arin and Brian is tantamount to slashing their tires and stealing their wives after thoroughly kicking them in the dick. He would still be struggling to pay rent on the east coast if it hadn't been for either of them; probably by this point he would've even given up, taken a job in advertising, and spent the rest of his life with the knowledge that he had utterly failed. Knowing that Arin and Brian helped him to succeed, and then knowing that he had stood them up, was a hot knife of pure shame to his heart.

Dan groans loudly as he is forced to stop at a red light. He glances at his phone, sitting innocently in the passenger seat, next to his backpack. He had fired off a slew of quick, highly apologetic text messages to his friends and acquaintances that he had accidentally snubbed, and proceeded to ignore every return message on the drive over to the Grump space. He hadn't even turned on the radio, so consumed with guilt and anxiety and terror. What if Arin was super pissed? He sounded agitated in his voice mail. As if Dan could fault him, everyone had gotten to the shooting location on time. Except Dan, who just had to sleep in like the lazy bum he was.

"Stop it," Dan told himself sternly. He did not have time for an emotional breakdown. Especially not while in the middle of LA traffic.

Now, stopped at the light, he had the overwhelming urge to check his phone, just to see if anyone had texted back, and if they were mad. He could not stand not knowing any longer. So, with a glance at the still red light, he plucked his phone from the passenger seat and quickly turned it on, unlocked it, and started swiping through messages until he found one from Arin, in reply to his hastily sent explanation for why he had been missing for six hours.

He only just saw words and a slew of emojis before the car behind him started laying on their horn; startled, he tossed the phone back to the passenger seat and hit the gas, as the light had now changed to green and traffic had started moving without him.

Of course, shaken as he was by the events of the day and the sudden need to resume driving, he hit the gas a bit too hard. He accelerated too much, and the light a block up was still red, holding traffic up again. So the light blue Honda Civic ahead of him had put on their breaks, and Dan planted both feet firmly on the brake pedal, begging the car to stop. The tires screeched loudly and the car listed a bit to the left as Dan's car shuddered to a halt, but not before just barely touching the rear bumper of the Civic.

Dan sat motionless, eyes wide, breathing labored, fingers holding the steering wheel in a death grip. He watched in disbelief as a young woman all but kicked her driver's side door open, having put on her emergency flashers, and stomped out to inspect the damage.

"You cannot be serious," he mutters tonelessly. "This is not real. This is not happening right now."

In a daze, he also puts on his flashers after shifting to park, and gets out of his car. Before he can even apologize, the young woman is upon him like a hawk.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouts. Her expression is mostly hidden behind big, bug-eyed sunglasses and her long, artfully unkempt hair. "Do you not know how to fucking drive, asshole? Hello?!"

She scoffs at his vacant expression, turning instead to closely inspect her bumper. "I can't believe this, oh my god," she says waspishly.

Dan manages to shake himself out of his shock. "I'm sorry," he blurts out, not surprised at how shaky his voice is. "I'm really sorry, I was just... I dunno... I'll pay for the damage-"

"You're god damn right, you'll pay for it, you fuckin' prick!" she shrieks. "Look at what you did!"

Dan inches closer, wary of closing the gap between him and the woman, but does so anyway to see what he did to her car. What he sees is a perfectly good bumper, with a tiny dent in it. Barely an inch in diameter. He wants more than anything to deny paying for repairs when he sees the paint job chipping by the passenger-side brake light, as well as the messy interior of the car. He can see three full trash bags sitting on the back seat, and a pile of empty water bottles and pop cans. Even from here he can see the overflowing ashtray, spilling cigarette butts into the center console. Clearly she does not care enough about her car to be this upset.

But contesting would require a court date, no doubt, so while other cars pass them with many engine revs and honks from disgruntled drivers, Dan hands over his contact information with promises to pay to have the dent removed from her bumper.

This exchange culminates in the young woman scoffing as Dan goes to get back in his car. "You had better pay for this, you worthless bum. I bet your parents bought you that car! Probably never worked a day in your life, by the look of you! You're lucky I'm in a hurry!"

She turns triumphantly and gets back into her own car, then tears away, leaving Dan standing by his own car. Her words would not have bothered him on any other day, but as everything was going wrong already, he was deeply wounded. He stands there, the door hanging open and the interior dinging politely to alert him about it, feeling the sting of her insults sink into him like poison.

With a deep, shaky breath, Dan gets into his car and continues driving, desperately ignoring the prickling behind his eyes.

* * *

 

Arin is sitting at one of the tables at the Grump space, eating a bowl of Cheerios. He had to reschedule everyone's day because Dan had mysteriously vanished.

He can't deny that he's a little worried. It is not at all like Dan to just not show up; if something had happened and he couldn't make it, he would have called or sent a text saying so. As it's been well over six hours, Arin has had the opportunity to obsess over every horrible thing that could've happened to him.

Of course, Dan had texted him- and everyone else- about half an hour ago explaining that he had forgotten to set an alarm and overslept. His message to Arin had been full of typos and autocorrect mishaps, as well as the word 'sorry,' over and over again. Really, if anyone was going to be sorry, Arin thought it should be himself. He knew Dan would work himself into the ground if given half the chance, as he had done it before. But he kept pushing him to record episodes, and now filming this ad for some merch even though Dan's plate was more than full.

Someone sits down across from him, carrying an open laptop. Arin said, "Oh, hey Brian."

Brian looks up over the laptop at Arin. "Hey," he says calmly.

"Have you heard from Dan?"

Brian shakes his head. "Not since he last texted all of us. I'm sure he'll be here any minute."

Arin frowns. "...Do you think I'm working him too hard?"

Brian takes this opportunity to shut the laptop and lean on the table, giving Arin his full attention. "I think Dan works himself too hard. You know how he is."

Arin nods absentmindedly. He knows Dan can get lost in his work, but hearing that he uncharacteristically slept through several appointments makes him a bit worried for Dan's general well-being. He knows Dan is still carrying around the memory of harder, poorer times in the back of his mind. To Dan, this is probably to keep him from becoming complacent. To Arin, it's a crutch that Dan needs to lean on to motivate himself; if he slows down too much, he thinks he'll end up back where he was, believing himself to be a failure.

This train of thought is interrupted by the main door to the office banging open, and Dan stumbling in, looking absolutely dreadful. "Hey, so sorry, god..."

Arin and Brian stand immediately upon Dan's entry. While Brian makes quick work of a little lighthearted fun at Dan's expense, Arin hangs back.

"Slept in, huh?" Brian says with a grin. "Well, leave it to Dan to ruin everyone's day."

"Ha ha," Dan says dryly. He drops his bag on a chair and makes his way to the soundproofed recording room, presumably to do his vocal warm-ups. "Leave it to me to ruin everything."

Arin's concern deepens greatly. If anyone can take Brian's constant ribbing and generally harmless teasing, it should be Dan, who's known him the longest. But, perhaps because he's just in a bad mood from oversleeping, his reaction in this one instance was brisk and a little worrying.

Brian seems to have noticed this, too, as he and Arin exchange glances. Brian looks confused, and like he wants to follow Dan into the recording room but has thought better of it. Instead, he goes back to his laptop, still frowning.

Arin pours out the bit of sugary milk left in his cereal bowl, no longer hungry for the last remaining Cheerios. He can hear Dan doing his warm-ups, and he has to exercize a lot of self control to not bust down the door and make Dan tell him what's going on.

* * *

 

"Uuuuuggggh..." Arin groans as Mario falls into a pit of lava on the screen.

"Woah boy," Dan remarks plainly.

"It's hard, Dan!" Arin whines, then hunkers down to try the Mario Maker level again. "Ooooh okay, okay, Oh!" He makes a very tight jump, barely escaping death, only to die in the exact same spot as before. He lets out a shriek of anger.

Dan winces, moving away a bit as he laughs. "Alright, alright. Next time on Game Grumps."

Arin tosses the controller down, rubbing his temples. He mumbles incoherently about the agrivating level, hoping to get enough mindless dialog for the end slate, before reaching forward and switching off the mic.

Dan gives him a questioning glance as Arin gets up and leans over to turn off Dan's mic as well. "We can't be done already," he says quietly. They've only recorded about five episodes.

"We're not," Arin says mildly. "I need to talk to you, and I can't wait until we finish recording. It's driving me nuts."

Dan looks away, biting his lip nervously. 'Here it comes.'

Arin has been thinking long and hard about how to breach this subject all day, which probably caused his sub-par playing today. "So, um." He notices Dan looking away, twisting a finger around a fraying string sprung loose from the blanket he has over his lap. "Are you okay, man? Like, really?"

Dan hesitates, jerking his head up a little bit, but stopping from making eye contact with Arin. "I'm fine," he says automatically.

"Yeah," Arin says sarcastically. "Listen, I get you're upset that you missed the shoot today and everything else, but it's not the end of the world. We just had to reschedule. We've had to reschedule before and everything turned out just fine."

Dan shifts uncomfortably on the couch. "It's not... I mean, that isn't the whole... um..."

They both fall silent. Arin watches Dan closely; though his wildly curly hair has fallen forward over his face due to his slouched posture, he is positively radiating sadness. Arin can hardly stand it. He scoots a bit closer, closing the distance between the two of them. Dan brings his knees up against his chest, wrapping his arms around them.

"Come on, man," Arin says softly. "You know, if there's anything going on... you know you can tell me. I'm not worried about the ad or any of that, plans can be changed. That's not as important to me. I just want to know... that you're okay, I guess."

Dan squeezes his eyes shut. He can't help feeling like he doesn't deserve this level of understanding from Arin. "I'm fine, really. I just slept in, forgot to set an alarm. Stupid mistake."

The silence is heavy, like a thick, cold fog. Arin knows Dan is lying to him, that there is something bothering him. He hasn't been his usual self while they've been recording. He's been more withdrawn than usual, though making a valiant effort to be entertaining. But it has sounded painful and forced at points, and Arin is sure that the viewers will notice it, too. Dan being low energy on the show is rare. But Arin isn't worried about YouTube statistics.

He leans forward, wrapping his arms around Dan's thin shoulders. He fully expects Dan to shrug him off, to laugh nervously and deflect the whole situation. But he just wants to snap Dan out of his funk enough to get him to talk. However, Dan doesn't flinch away, or stiffen up, or show any signs of not approving of Arin's touch. Quite the contrary; he leans into it, as though he had been desperately hungry for this all day.

Dan lets out a shaky sigh, looking up at the light fixtures lining the ceiling. Arin pulls him in closer into a full-on hug and his eyes fill with tears, though he would really rather not cry at the present moment.

"I'm worried about you," Arin says, his deep voice rumbling softly in Dan's ear. "Just tell me what's going on."

This was all Dan needed after the horrible day he'd been having. He lets everything go, though doesn't fall to pieces quite yet. He cries quietly, too caught up in feeling sorry for himself to even be ashamed of crying in front of Arin.

To Arin's credit, he just continues hugging Dan, sitting quietly with him, waiting patiently to hear what's bothering him.

With a sharp inhale, Dan cannot stand holding anything in anymore. It all starts spilling out of him, like a torrent. He explains through tears how he was so tired when he got home last night, how he fell asleep on the couch and slept way too late, how he stumbled around for about twenty minutes tripping over his own feet, and the incident with the Honda Civic and how she called him a worthless bum.

"And I just," Dan says between hiccups, "I just- I feel so god damn stupid, I know it's not really that big of a deal, but I can't fuck this up, I can't, not after my dad finally told me he was p-proud of me and after all of this success, I can't just... go back to being a worthless failure-"

"Hey, hey, hey," Arin cuts in, seeing Dan dissolve into hysterics. "Calm down, breathe. Breathe."

He demonstrates taking a slow, deep breath, and Dan follows suit as the crying fit tapers off. They continue in this fashion for a moment, until Dan has calmed down considerably and is left with the dregs of the situation. He knows he shouldn't be ashamed, but he stares resolutely at the floor. Arin has backed off slightly, but keeps a hand on his shoulder, rubbing his thumb lightly over the fabric of Dan's shirt.

"Listen very closely, Dan," Arin says, his tone very serious but gentle. "I would not allow you to lose everything you've earned over the past couple years. You know that. So you slept in one day! It's alright, and from the sound of it, you needed the sleep. I know you want to keep making stuff, that you want to meet these standards you set for yourself, but you can't keep plowing yourself into the ground. You're a human being, god damn it, and... I can't stand to see you like this."

Dan looks up and locks eyes with Arin, who is smiling serenely back at him. Something clicks into place in his mind, with a ringing finality, and he can feel more tears gathering as he leans back. Arin brings him in for another hug, and this one Dan returns with full force.

"I'm s-sorry," Dan says, choking on a fresh wave of sobs.

Arin shushes him, rubbing his back in loose, slow circles. "Don't say you're sorry. You shouldn't be sorry."

"I mean, for, y'know... crying all over you," Dan says into Arin's shoulder.

"Pshh." Arin scoffs. "I'm counting myself lucky, man. This is probably someone's fetish."

This earns a very wet laugh from Dan, though he still keeps his face hidden at the junction of Arin's neck and shoulder. His thin, trembling hands cautiously inch up, stopping to rest at Arin's chest, and Arin smiles fondly at the older man. Then, something occurs to him.

"Have you eaten anything today? When's the last time you had anything to eat?" Arin asks, trying to sound conversational but failing to filter out the sternness from his voice.

Dan shrugs. "Apple," he mutters, and leaves it at that.

"The last thing you had to eat was that apple? Last night?"

"Mmhmm," Dan replies.

Arin hums thoughtfully, then, with some difficulty and a squeak of protest from Dan, he manages to get his phone from his pocket. He shoots out a quick text to Suzy, who he knows is in the main room, at her desk, then sets the phone aside. He settles down into the arm of the couch, pulling Dan down with him.

As much as Dan would like to deny it, having someone hold onto him like this is incredibly soothing. He is much too emotionally drained to listen to the voice in the back of his head, the one that came from growing up in Jersey in the nineties, that says snuggling up with another man is inherently bad.

'Arin is my friend,' he says internally. 'Arin is my friend and there's nothing wrong with hugging your friend. We're just friends.'

Moments later, Suzy walks in with two paper plates, each one carrying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She sets both of these on the nearby table, then leans down to give Arin a quick kiss. After standing up, she says genuinely, "Hope you feel better, Dan. This place just isn't the same when you're not around to brighten it up."

She leaves, and Dan considers what she said as Arin nudges him into a sitting position. Arin notices the curious frown on Dan's face. "Something wrong?" he asks as he hands him one of the plates.

Dan buys himself a moment by taking a bite of the pb and j. He had forgotten how hungry he was until just now, and has to practice a great deal of self restraint to not wolf down the whole thing in half a second. "'S nuthin'," he says around a mouthful of peanut butter. He swallows quickly, then continues. "It's just, what Suzy said..."

Arin takes a polite bite of his own sandwich. He isn't really hungry, but hopes that it will at least convince Dan to keep eating.

Instead, Dan stares wistfully off into space. "It's like... today has been a very bad day. And I'll get over it. But... I don't know, man. I guess I'm still just used to dealing with shit like that on my own."

Arin nods sagely. He definitely knows the feeling well; that any personal problems you might encounter are personal, and you shouldn't bother other people with them. Especially if there's nothing they can do to help. "I know what you mean," he says. "But Suzy is right, you know. You're our friend. We care about you, a whole fuckin' lot."

Dan ducks his head down to hide his smile, but Arin smiles wide and leans down to maintain eye contact anyway. This is too important for him to hide from. "You got that? You big muppet? We care about you. We want you to be happy. Not for the show, fuck the show. If YouTube went out of business tomorrow, we would still care about you and want you to be happy. And I'm sure you feel the same about us."

Dan nods, at a loss for words.

Arin leans away, giving Dan some space. "Working with you has been amazing, but just having you as a friend has been... A godsend. I'm serious, Dan, you make so many people happy. So many. So who gives a shit about some lady's bumper? Just pay her the $100 and she'll go on being a miserable person. What she said isn't fucking true, and I know you know that. You're not a worthless bum. You make people happy on a daily basis."

Dan is sniffling again, and makes one attempt to wipe tears away before giving up. He sets the paper plate aside and hugs Arin again, full force, trying to put every ounce of gratitude that he can muster into it.

Arin just laughs gently, returning the tight hug immediately.

"Thanks," Dan says softly.

"No problem, buddy," Arin replies.

They separate, and spend the next thirty minutes eating their pb and j's, while joking around to lighten the mood. They do have more episodes to record, after all.

Once Dan's voice isn't as stuffy, and it doesn't sound like he's just been crying, and the dramatic moment has passed, they begin recording again. He goes into it refreshed, ready to prove to himself that this moment of doubt was for nothing, and that everything is fine.

He'll end up owing $117 to get that lady's bumper repaired. When he meets her at the repair shop to pay for it, he stops in and hands her the cash. She will count it out, frowning at an extra twenty. Dan will simply smile brightly, insist that she keep it, and go about his day.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first post here. Sorry if it's not very good.
> 
> I will say, this is intended to be egobang friendship, though you could read between the lines and say it's romantic if you'd like. I might write egobang at some point, if I find a good prompt.


End file.
